City needs overall anti-flooding strategy

Thursday, August 18, 2016 13:31

Ho Chi Minh City authority has spent lots of money on anti-flooding efforts yet the city has not been improved flooding points leading to the public concern, that is one of content of the meeting between the Economic and Budgetary Committee under the People’s Council in and the HCMC Anti-Flooding Steering Board on August 17.

A section of drainage is built in Hang Bang canal (Photo: SGGP)

According to the steering board, in 2001 the city’s drainage system had 932 kilometer sewage varieties and currently the city has built more sewages with the length of 3,123 kilometer but districts 2, 7, 9, 12, Thu Duc, Hoc Mon, Nha Be and Binh Chanh still lack drainage; accordingly, the city will continue building in next time.

From 2008, the city has had 126 streets which are highly vulnerable for flooding. Now 17 streets are easily inundated when it rains. It is scheduled that by 2020, 13 streets will not be flooded any more.

While total length of polluted canals including four major drainage sewages Tham Luong-Ben Cat- Nuoc Len canal; Tau Hu – Ben Nghe-Doi Canal; Te Canal; Nhieu Loc- thi Nghe and Tan Hoa- Lo Gom being dredged is 60.3 kilometer. Three reservoirs aimed at preventing flooding are being built in three districts of Ho Chi Minh City. The Bau Cat reservoir will be built in Tan Binh District, while the Go Dua and Khanh Hoi reservoirs will be constructed in Thu Duc District and District 4 respectively, the steering board said.

Though the city has implemented anti-flooding projects, the city is still inundated. There are many reasons for it including climate change, quickly increased population, encroachment of canal for building houses, and slow pace of construction.

Nguyen Ngoc Cong, director of the Anti-Flooding Program Operation Center, said that the city needs VND35,850 billion to carry out two projects this year with a total cost of about VND97,298 billion (US$ 4.4 billion).

Deputy Head of the Economic and Budgetary Committee Cao Thanh Binh said that the tardiness of the anti-flooding projects is due to bad cooperation between agencies. Moreover, in reality, the city has tried to prevent flooding but it needs an overall anti-flooding strategy for the city.